1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a roof opening and closing device, in particular for automobile vehicles, comprising a pair of rails fixed to the top of the roof of the vehicle on either side of an opening in the roof, a front carriage pair and a rear carriage pair adapted to be moved in longitudinal translation in the rails by a pair of cables, and an articulation mechanism functionally related to the carriages and a pair of slides carrying a mobile panel to tilt the mobile panel and slide it over the roof of the vehicle, each slide having a front part and a rear part.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As a general rule, a roof opening and closing device of this kind is fixed directly to the top of the roof of a vehicle as an adaptation. These known devices have the drawback of having a significant thickness above the roof of the vehicle. This increased thickness significantly degrades the drag factor of the vehicle and so compromises its performance. Also, asperities in the roof surface due to the thickness of a device of this kind give rise to turbulence producing noise which is disagreeable to the vehicle passengers. Furthermore, its great thickness is detrimental to the general esthetics of the vehicle.
Until now articulation mechanisms for the mobile panel enabling it to tilt and slide over the vehicle roof, in the case of a roof opening and closing device fixed to the top of the vehicle roof, have required rails of significant height and therefore a significant thickness of the roof opening and closing device to accommodate the members required to tilt and slide the mobile panel.
An object of the present invention is to alleviate these drawbacks of the prior art. A particular objective of the invention is to propose a roof opening and closing device which has the least possible thickness above the vehicle roof, this thickness not exceeding 18 mm.
Essentially, a roof opening and closing device in accordance with the invention comprises a first front carriage pair functionally related to first guide path means at the front of the slide to raise the mobile panel above the roof when it slides and a second rear carriage pair functionally related to second, third and fourth guide path means at the rear of the slide through the intermediary of a pair of links to raise the mobile panel above the roof when it slides and to tilt it. The links make it possible to reduce significantly the height of the rails and therefore the thickness of the roof opening and closing device whilst retaining the facility for the mobile panel to tilt and slide over the vehicle roof.